madicen

Yes, same.

Spotter is a fascinating case. Their posts are CRAZY, so crazy I think they are playing a character at this point....but whoever they are they a) really have a thing against LOTROs pricing and B) have sunk over 100 hrs into SoH. Fascinating. The deconstruction of this whole thing is going to make for some interesting video essays in the near future...perfect for Josh Strife Hayes Worst MMO Ever or nerdSlayer Death of a Gamer series.

Just when you think things could not possibly get worse over there at SoH the newest move to "combat the trolls" is to wall off discussion into "people who own the game" and "those who dont own the game". Over the weekend they didn't get enough people online concurrently to fill two groups at any point so I guess those couple dozen people have a nice safe place to keep telling each other they are right while the rest of the world is wrong, while us poors who dont want to waste our money can go over there in the corner and talk to each other. It's like a train crash I cant help but watch at this point. There is no way they keep the lights on till end of year at this rate, unless they have something left over from the Kickstarter or a whale with deep pockets behind them privately.

You didn't see it since they went scorched earth and deleted threads and banned people. It so bad that PC Gamer mentioned it in their article today, specifically calling out SOH7. As to the tune they have been singing, it changed when they told us they were the first "real" mmo with such amazing tech no one else could pull off and then priced it like they were EA. The sticked post is still up, comments are locked of course, but it's right there if you want to be told what a "real mmo" is. Telling us we're poor if we dont want to pay $60 for it, that's an insult. Shutting down uncomfortable conversations, sweeping negativity under the rug is insulting. Everything about how they have handled it has been insulting.

No, for me at least, the ridiculous pricing was the rotten cherry on top of the poop sundae. Personally, to me, it looks feels and plays like a trash bin Unity asset flip of a game. Look for some people and some games thats OK, that's what you're looking for. If they had come out and said "this is not going to be a AAA MMO with all the latest and greatest, what it is is a labor of love/spiritual successor to CoH but we're a small shop ect". What they came out and said is this is the "first real mmo in over a decade". To insult your target audience like that is unforgiveable, to treat us like complete idiots who dont know anything about games. To tell us we're poor if we cant afford $60 for a game that looks and plays like Second Life. I have more indie $20 games in my Steam library than I will ever had time to play honestly. I will throw down on a game made by a small shop that does not treat their customers like idiots more often than not. Some of my favorite games from the last couple of years, games I have hundreds of hours in were made by one or two people and have Minecraft level graphics. Just in the last few years we've seen HUGE indie hits like Schedule 1 (one dev) and Valheim (five devs) break out into massive success at the $20 price point. In both of these cases one of my friend group saw it said "hmm, this looks interesting for $20" and next thing you know we're all playing it for the next couple of months....all the while saying "wow, this is AMAZING for such a small shop and only $20". The conversation around SoH though is the complete opposite...."wow, this looks like crap for $60. what are they thinking". My friend group that I game with are the same people that I played CoH with 20 years ago...WE are the target audience. Even with all the negative noise if your game is decent people will try it. Steam lets you refund if less than 2 hours time played, we all know that. SoH currently has 16 people playing. People are voting with their wallet and they have decided this is not the game to spend $60 on. Now if they come to their senses and price it appropriately then maybe they can get some people to give it a try, but I wouldn't hold my breath.

AO launch was marred by severe technical issues, rather than it being a steaming trash heap of a game. People could not register accounts for days after purchasing the game, and if you managed to get through that the servers were very very unstable. I got stuck in a store for DAYS and could not leave. After those first few weeks though AO was amazing. Definitely the worst launch ever, gonna be a while before anyone tops that. They have gone 100% scorched earth over there at SoH. They still are shutting down any dissent in the steam forum, banning any and all conversation that are not 100% positive...banning people who bought the game yet have complaints or suggestions. I even got banned lol. The "official" forums look like someone's freshman project from 1999, has no posts no life no interactions. The reddit (not official but the only one) is a graveyard. This game is D E A D on arrival, and thats sad. The craziest part is they are blaming US! We're the target audience!! Many of us wanted nothing more than for this to succeed, but after seeing how the devs and community managers have acted through all this even if it were free I would not bother. The game looks like a browser MMO from 2001. They spent nine years and this is the best they could come up with? They haven't made any meaningful progress in years. Im starting to think, and this may be tin hat territory, but maybe they released this in the state its in so it would crash and burn....free them from their legal obligations. "We delivered a product, it wasnt a scam. It might not have been a good product, but we delivered a product". Call me crazy, but what else makes sense in this situation?

Way back when one of the people working for Cryptic played EQ/DAOC/SWG with me and the boys. After work they would hop on Teamspeak (maybe it was Ventrilo, or Mumble, or Roger Wilco...the voice coms timeline is a little fuzzy 20 year later) with us to game. When they game got to a place where they could invite other to test it out we got a bunch of keys. CoH was just one of those game that immediately clicked with my friend group. When the game launched our guild was heavy into SWG but CoH became our downtime game, something we could all just chill and have a good time with...rather than the "serious business PvP" game that SWG was for us. I loved it, still love it, for it's simple but addictive gameplay loop, innovative systems, and just plain fun factor. Thats the short version of that story :)

Those old ranger kits got SILLY BIG. Hanging out with your pals getting ready to murder every Rebel in some guilds city in a ranger camp, dancers dancing doctors doctoring. Good times, good times.

You're clarification did not help any. I think most people understood your position the first time, but like me found it ridiculous. Is your ideal group just 8 Blasters? Many of us, myself included, find Blasters boring AF to play. Self centered all out dps is not everyone's cup of tea, nor is it the ONLY way to play this game. I think you should actually play a Dom or Controller at end game before you try to speak on their role in groups. So far all you've done is explain that you do not understand what these AT bring to the table.

Actually I played beta. Back then and after release we PL'd people in Brickstown, with Fire/Kins, when the cap was 40. Any more questions?

Powerleveling keeps THIS person here. That is player retention. Powerleveling keeps me here as well. It adds to MY enjoyment of the game. Its something I enjoy. It does not matter to me how others view what I enjoy in games. This argument is as pointless now as it was during live. What's the end goal? Remove XP from AE? With less and less people logging in each week you really think intentionally turning away people is a good idea? People will leave. Maybe people you could care less for, but the community will suffer as a result.

Hmm, im a power leveler who has been here since day one. What does that make me?

If I were in your shoes I'd be making a Brute, but thats just me. There are so many great options for survivability and damage in the majority of the sets. Having a farm brute on you roster to fund your other escapades is a HUGE help. My second toon was a Rad/Fire brute. He does very well in all content outside of AE, have done it all with that character. Every time i get the itch to try out a new build I can just fire up the INF making machine and viola decked out in all purps and ATOs before you know it. Having that farm toon on a second account is even better...but thats a whole other conversation.